Abby Advocates Musical Freedom Using the Example of Wizard Rock

I don’t believe in guilty pleasures.

You probably didn’t see that coming from the title, did you?  Well, it’ll make sense later, I swear.  But for now, a rant on guilty pleasures.

For some reason, people everywhere are always trying to tell you that the stuff you like is stupid.  Now, if you like throwing babies into volcanoes or kicking puppies then they’re probably right about that– but that’s not the kind of stuff I’m talking about.  For the sake of my argument, let’s limit the definition of “guilty pleasures” to meaning certain forms of entertainment such as music, TV, movies, or books. 

Guilty pleasures are stupid to me for a lot of reasons.  Firstly, if you feel guilty about doing something, it should be because the thing you are doing is wrong.  And secondly, no one has the right to tell you that the forms of entertainment that you enjoy are wrong or stupid.  Good entertainment is a completely subjective concept.  You shouldn’t have to feel guilty for liking any of the things that you like.  If you like Twilight or Glee or Jersey Shore or Justin Bieber you should just go ahead and like those things without feeling bad about it.  NEVER let anyone tell you that the thing you like is stupid and never let them make you feel stupid for liking the things that you like.  You should never have to defend your love for anything.  To me, it seems that any form of entertainment is worthwhile entertainment as long as it makes at least one person somewhere happy.  That’s pretty much how feel about of everything in life.  If the things you do make you happy and they’re not hurting anyone, then do what you want and don’t apologize to anyone for it.

Right, now that I’ve spewed out all that crap, I bet you can guess what the connection I’m going to make to Wizard Rock is.  By a lot of people’s standards, Wizard Rock is not “quality” entertainment.  The reason for this seems to stem from a lack of understanding.  Most Wizard Rock isn’t trying to be amazing.  And most popular Wizard Rock had extremely humble beginnings.  If you listen to Harry and the Potters or Draco and the Malfoys or The Parselmouths you’ll notice that they have pretty low tech recordings.  You pretty much have to be a hardcore Harry Potter fan to appreciate this kind of Wizard Rock.  Which is fine.  They’re only trying to appeal to Harry Potter fans.  Even some Harry Potter fans don’t really like Wizard Rock because Wizard Rockers aren’t usually classically trained musicians with access to fancy recording studios.  That is also completely understandable.  I don’t care if people don’t like Wizard Rock.  That’s fine.  I still think that Wrock is seriously misunderstood by these people, but I can accept that.  What I can’t accept is people hating on Wizard Rock and calling the people who listen to it stupid just because it’s different.  The majority of people in this world do not know what Wizard Rock is and because of this, they are already likely to be biased against it.  I find it amusing because we live in the age of the “hipsters,” but even hipsters don’t want to be too underground.  There has to be a limit to your nerdiness– and lots of people draw this line at Wizard Rock.

I, myself, found it hard to warm up to Wrock because like everyone else, I’m accustomed to listening to higher quality recordings when I’m listening to music.  I remember listening to Harry and the Potters for the first time and thinking “What is this shit?”  But what I failed to realize at the time was that Harry and the Potters wasn’t trying to be good– it was just trying to be exactly what it was, silly and ridiculous and fun.  And who could hate that?

Okay.  Now if this hasn’t completely scared you away from this blog or from Wrock and you’re interested in getting into Wrock, then I’ll give you some titles of some of the more accessible Wrock songs and bands.

Ministry of Magic is by far my favorite Wrock band.  They switch on and off from having a really fun and upbeat electronic sound and having a slightly serious and occasionally acoustic sound.  My two favorite MoM songs are definitely “This Town” and “Ascendio.” Both fall on the more acoustic side of things.  If you’re more interested in their electronic stuff, I would check out “The Curse.”

Another great Wrock band to check out is The Remus Lupins, which is actually one of the oldest Wrock bands.  Alex Carpenter, the front man of the band, is pretty much the nicest, coolest guy ever and you can tell he tries really really hard to put out good music that he’s proud of.  I actually got to meet Alex Carpenter once and it was one of the best nights of my life.  Anyway, two really great The Remus Lupins songs to listen to are “Skipping Class” and “For All the Hufflepuffs” if you want to get a sense of what they’re like.

These two next suggestions I’m going to make aren’t actual Wrock bands, they’re artists who sometimes record Wrock songs.  Probably more accessible than any of the songs I’ve mentioned so far is “Wizard Love” by Meekakitty and Heyhihello.  I might be a little biased about this since I am madly in love with Heyhihello, but this song is honestly one of the cutest Wrock songs I have ever heard.  And it’s a lot easier on the ears than old school Wrock like Harry and The Potters or Draco and the Malfoys kind of stuff.  I know for sure that I’m extremely biased about this next artist too because I am a nerdfighter, but I happen to love pretty much all of Hank Green’s Wrock songs.  “Accio Deathly Hallows” is the best probably (especially since it’s the song that made the Vlogbrothers YouTube famous!) but I also think “Book Eight” is really fun too.

So those are my Wizard Rock suggestions.  You might find when you listen to these that they really just aren’t your cup of tea and you know what, that’s totally cool.  Like what you like because you like it– not because someone else told you to like it!  This whole blog was actually inspired by the fact that I attended a One Direction concert a little while ago and it happened to be pretty much the best time I have ever had.  You know why it was the best time I’ve ever had?  It was because I went alone and no one was there to judge me or make me feel stupid for liking a silly mainstream boy band.  You know what?  I love One Direction and I don’t care what anyone thinks about that.  I don’t care that their songs are filled with parallels (You don’t know you’re beautiful, That’s what makes you beautiful…I need that one thing, You’ve got that one thing).  You’d probably think that they’re the opposite of Wizard Rock, but to me they’re exactly the same as Wizard Rock in a lot of ways.  Because like with Wrock, everyone is always trying to make me feel bad about liking One Direction because they’re silly and upbeat and not the best singers.  One Direction may be extremely popular and Wizard Rock may extremely unknown, but their fans probably get the same amount of shit for liking them.  And that is wrong.  It’s wrong to tell anyone that their taste in music is wrong because music is inherently good.  It’s supposed to make you happy.  And if a song –whether it’s “Friday” by Rebecca Black, “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga, “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction, or “Skipping Class” by The Remus Lupins– makes just one person happy, then it’s a worthwhile piece of music.